COSTA RICA DAY 4 Downtown

Leaders Nora and Tyra led the group in today’s trip to downown Turrialba.

To begin our day, we had a delicious breakfast. We had queso tortillas, with a side of fruit (bananas, watermelon, and mango). After breakfast, we had our daily mental warm up meeting, where we spoke about the quote of the day (¨We are not rich by what we posess but by what we can do without¨) and the question of the day (How does it feel to support others? Can one person make a difference?) We revisited these both at the end of the day to reflect on how they related to our experience in Downtown Turrialba! After our meeting, we started our walk to the bus stop. The walk was up a large hill surrounded by a beautiful field of farms and mountains. The view helped with the pain of walking up the steep mountain. The views outside the bus were so beautiful, they distracted us from the length and bumpy roads of the trip.

Once we arrived in Downtown Turrialba, we headed towards the shops. Our first stop was a park. Some people bought copos (Costa Rican ice cream) from a steet vendor. Others walked around, or went to the playground. We all got a glimpse of what it is like to live in an urban area. After we learned about some of the history of the park, we went to a local church. It was so beautiful that we had to stop and take pictures, and stay there for a while. After that, we began to enter some stores and do some window shopping. Some of us got food. Zion got a brownie from a bakery. We (Tyra and Nora) bought some things from thrift stores and other local small businesses. Jasleen bought a spiderman notebook and a poncho, Christian bought a Costa Rican Uno Game (Dos), Matthew bought a basketball, and London bought shorts.

After we concluded our shopping, we gathered to head back to the bus. Since it was raining, we all got under our umbrellas and in our ponchos, then hurried back to the bus stop. We got on the bus, and headed back to the Lodge. Once we reached the Lodge, we took a quick 45 minute break. Most of us took a nap, or played board games! Both of us (Tyra and Nora) took a 25 minute nap before lunch!

For lunch, we ate fish, rice, beans, plantains, salad, tomatoes, and cucumbers. For a refresher, we drank fresh orange juice. My (Nora) favorite part of the meal was the fish, because it was our first time having it here in Costa Rica! My (Tyra) favorite part of the meal was definitely the plantains, as it is a staple in my household!

After lunch, we began our CAP Seminar meeting as preparation for our community action project! We discussed efficient ways to construct our plan for how we were going to manage our work on water pipes in the neighborhood. Additionally, we discussed how were going to work with the local elementary school, during our cultural exchange meeting. We spoke about how we were planning on splitting in groups to tackle multiple different tasks and activities with the young children.

During calls with our parents, we had downtime to hang out in the Lodge. Some played basketball with Matt, some explored the property, some played games, and others conversed. Tyra and I played basketball!

After freetime, we began the conclusion of the day with dinner! We ate spaghetti with meat and salsa, along with garlic bread, and parmesan cheese. After this, we had our nightly meeting where we discussed the quote and question of the day, and shared our favorite things that we did! We shared our rose and thorns, which are pros and cons of the day, as well as our plus and a wish, which is constructive feedback for our peers! A popular rose was the experience of visiting downtown and experiencing the culture, and a popular thorn was having to hang up on our parents due to the phone call time limit. A popular plus given to the leaders was that we were able to get everywhere on time throughout the day, and a wish was that we stayed positive despite the rain and stress of getting to each destination.

Today was a great day, full of culture, social activities, and discovery. We had so much fun as leaders and learned so much. We love Turrialba!

Big Love,

Nora and Tyra